AppleScript: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition

Inadequacies of the Dictionary

One function of the dictionary is to show the human user how to speak AppleScript to a scriptable application in order to drive that application. But the very nature of a dictionary renders it insufficiently expressive to fulfill this function. A dictionary is merely a list of words. Words don't make a language. The problem, as Austin famously put it, is how to do things with words. That's what you want to know, but it's just what the dictionary is incapable of telling you. Dictionaries can be more discursive and explanatory thanks to the new sdef format, and it is to be hoped that developers will take advantage of this to improve them; but few dictionaries use this format, and even when they do, the fundamental problem will remain: a vocabulary list is not documentation.

Here's an eclectic collection of some of the various ways in which the dictionary can fail the user. Forewarned is forearmed; I hope this discussion will make you a sharper reader of dictionaries and a wiser AppleScript programmer.

Tip

This discussion is not meant to imply that all dictionaries are bad. On the contrary, some developers have worked hard to write careful, informative dictionaries. But it is hard work. You have to know AppleScript, you have to anticipate your users' needs and expectations, and you have to know the dictionary format and how to make the best of it. Most important, your application's scriptability has to have been well implemented to start with; for some useful ...